


A Little Understanding

by purajobot935



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Cross-Generational Friendship, Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, Interracial By Fantasy Standards, Talking, mentions of bullying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 18:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1908687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life after Hong Kong was supposed to have been better, but there was no denying that things had changed and Tessa could never go back to the life she used to have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Understanding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wicked3659](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wicked3659/gifts).



> An attempt to build up on Tessa's character. I feel she had the potential to be more than she was in the movie, but was wasted in the end. So I guess this is my way of trying to fix it and give her a little more than she was given.
> 
> Not beta-ed cos I was typing this when I should have been sleeping.

A Little Understanding

Life after Hong Kong was supposed to have been better, and maybe it was in some ways – new house, money for college, three new cars that most people would sell their organs for – but there was no denying that things had changed and she could never go back to the life she used to have. She was different now. Things and people that used to matter before, suddenly they didn’t matter anymore. Choosing a side did that, she supposed.

She had chosen their side. She’d had the chance to walk away from it all, but she’d been tired of running, of feeling helpless while things happened around her, moved on around her. 

She chose to follow them, even if they were alien robots, because unlike her own species, they hadn’t put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her father.

That apparently had some repercussions back in small town Texas.

Friends – or well, she thought they’d been friends – said she’d betrayed her own kind, that she’d thrown all the memories of Chicago and those who died away for some cold alien metal. Only, that alien metal was warm, was alive, could feel just like she could, had lost loved ones, too – not just to their enemies, but to human savagery.

She remembered Optimus and how he reacted to the murder – it WAS murder, however else the authorities wanted to phrase it – of his friend. She had seen the fury, of course, but she had also heard the despair in his voice…. And in spite of it all he had still protected her. He could have let her die in return – it would have looked like a terrible accident – but she remembered how he had shielded her as they crashed through the truck on the highway.

Sometimes she lay awake and wondered if she couldn’t have done more to help him while they were trapped on Lockdown’s ship, but she had been so frightened and out of her league, she hadn’t known what to do except wait for her dad to find her, because… her dad would always fix things after all. That’s what he did best.

A passing jeep raised a cloud of dust around her as it went by and she felt the splash of water on her clothes as an empty bottle rolled to her feet, but by the time the dust cleared and she looked up, the jeep was too far away. As she dabbed away tear-smudged makeup from her face, she heard the purr of a high-performance engine and braced herself for another round.

“Want me to light a fire under their sorry afts?” a familiar voice asked. “We can still catch up to ‘em. Just give the word.”

Tessa managed a small smile at the green-and-black Corvette that idled beside her. “It’s fine.”

The passenger door opened. “C’mon, let’s get ya home.”

She slid into the seat, dropping her bag to the floor while brushing away another tear. “Thank you, Crosshairs.”

The seatbelt came across her once she straightened and Crosshairs resumed his drive back to the Yeager property. “Want to tell me why you’re leaking from your face?” Direct as always.

“It’s stupid really.” She looked out the window at the passing countryside. “I thought things would go back to the way they were once we got back home, but… I don’t understand. You saved the world. Humanity wouldn’t exist today if you hadn’t fought to keep the Seed from destroying the planet, but people still hate you.”

Crosshairs’ engine revved a bit. “Hard to understand something y’ain’t a part of; if it ain’t happened to ya. That all though? Didn’t think a bit o’ flak in our direction would make ya leak optical fluid.”

She snorted and lightly smacked the empty driver’s seat. “I don’t like what they say about you guys. You’re not just cold machines, you’re… you’re living creatures, just like us.”

“But you still wanted to sell Optimus off to the humans at one point.”

“You heard about that?” she gave a sheepish wince. “I didn’t know any better then, but I’ve gotten to know you all now and…”

“Aww, say it: y’love us. Me especially.”

“Just don’t tell Shane.”

“It’ll be our secret.” The seatbelt tightened around her a bit more, pressing her into the seat. It felt like a hug – first hug she’d had in a while from someone that wasn’t her dad or Shane. “What else?”

She curled up against the seat. “Who said there was anything else?”

The engine revved.

Tessa sighed. “I used to be one of the popular girls… and then I chose a side, and it wasn’t their side. I’m not so popular anymore and they, and everyone like them, just decided that it was wrong. But they don’t understand – they don’t want to understand – why I couldn’t be like them. Not after…”

“Hmm…” Crosshairs drove quietly for a while, turning onto the path to the Yeager farm. “I’m not a popular bot, I’ll tell ya right now. Never was. Hound only trusts me as far as he can throw me.”

She chuckled. “He must be a pretty good throw, though. I saw him fight in Hong Kong.”

“Hey, you want the snippet of life story or not? I could just dump your aft here and let ya walk. Kids…” he grumbled good-naturedly. “Anyway, lotta the bots didn’t like me cos I spoke my mind, sometimes loudly. I may be an Autobot, but I didn’t always believe in the cause back during the war, know what I mean? This latest guy called Prime, I needed t’know what he was about. Caused a few rifts between me and the bots that were loyal to him. There was this one bot, Jazz his name was, said he’d turn me into the next Cube (he had a thing with magnetics) if I kept runnin’ my mouth. So yeah… wasn’t the guy everyone picked first for their team.”

“How did you manage?”

“I stayed true to meself. Bots can say whatever they like, but I wasn’t gonna sell out to a cause I didn’t believe in. Took some time to see that Optimus was the real deal and commit a bit more, but yeah, some guys still don’t trust me or like me, and I’m okay with that.”

Tessa looked at the dashboard. “Are you though? Doesn’t it get lonely being alone all the time?”

“Y’get used to it. And I ain’t completely alone. Some of these guys, they’re alright. They let me be me and they get where I’m comin’ from. Guy like Drift for instance. I think he’s a little glitched in the processor, but I know he’s got my back, so I got his. Y’don’t need a ton of people t’like ya, kid. Just the ones that matter.”

Crosshairs slowed as he reached the house, preparing to let her off on the front porch.

She straightened. “No, wait. Can you go round the back? I’d rather not have to explain to dad what happened, he might get Bumblebee to burn the school down, and I still need to graduate.”

“Y’got it.”

He drove round to the back. A glance in the garage showed the others were absent – probably out taking their own drives or whatever it was they did when they weren’t around. He opened the door and she stepped out with her bag, tossing it onto the grass before sitting on the step and watching as he transformed to his robot form, fluid metal fanning out behind him like a trenchcoat as he stretched. He glanced down at her watching him, noting the extra moisture in her own blue eyes, and sighed, reaching in through a window and closing his hand around something.

Then he knelt beside her. “Look, I can’t say it gets easy. If Drift were here, he’d probably tell ya to make like a rock and let their words feel like water or some weird slag like that, but he ain’t here and I’m not even gonna attempt to channel him so… here…”

She gave a little laugh as she took one of her larger teddy bears from his hands into her arms and cuddled it. Crosshairs smiled a little triumphantly at this success.

“Heard these stuffed things usually make you humans feel better.”

“YOU made me feel better,” she said. “Thank you.”

The mech shrugged. “Like I said, the ones that matter. I got your back.”

Her smiled seemed stronger this time. “Would it be alright if I stayed out here with you for a little while? Maybe you can tell me more about your home planet?”

“Ah kid, if I do that, we’re gonna be out here all night.”

“It’s okay. I’ve got time.”

=====

The stars were out when the blue Bugatti pulled up alongside the Corvette and transformed, cocking his head slightly when the other didn’t follow suit.

“Is everything alright, Crosshairs?” he asked.

The Corvette gave a little jolt, as if he’d been woken from a light recharge. “Shh… y’gonna wake the kid with all that noise,” he scolded as Drift sat down cross-legged beside him.

The other mech looked at him curiously and then peered through his window to find Tessa asleep across his seats, teddy bear wrapped in her arms. He smiled. “I didn’t think you were inclined to take a liking to the humans so readily,” he teased.

“I still don’t,” Crosshairs admitted. “But this one, she’s alright.” He settled as she shifted in her sleep. “Aye, she’s alright.”

 

~END.


End file.
